“And it is not distant,” said Hammer, “this other rock of the same kind; there may be a host of rocks.” Then he spoke still more earnestly. “We, even you and I, are the ones. We must seek more copper and we shall find it. It lies somewhere in the gorges, surely! Will you come with me until we have gone far enough and searched most closely? What greater thing could we be doing? Will you come with me?” As he well knew, he need not have asked the question. I had long since become as earnest as was he in the great thing upon which so depended our fortunes and the fortunes of all our tribe. Surely I consented, for I had lost myself in the fancy for this wonderful new adventure of search and labour which might assure us weapons and many other things of a different and better sort, and give to us of the plains and hills an advantage over all other tribes. I had become a joyous copper-seeker and earnest artisan! My fortunes should be henceforth joined with those of Hammer, as he would have it, and as it was now pledged. What if we should somewhere find the red substance in abundance and perhaps not so firmly imbedded in such rock! What things would happen then! Utterly abandoned were we now in this quest to come. What cared we for the women or the breaking of the horses or the wild chase of the stag or urus? A greater thing was ours! Soon were we prepared for the journey, the course of which we had not yet determined, except that it must follow the base of the low mountain range and lead up its many valleys and gorges and canyons until, if fortune were with us, we had come upon what we sought. Straight descendants of the first Tamers were we, so our legends said, and there were horses with us, though many other tribes had not yet learned to tame and use them, or sometimes count upon them for meat. Should we take horses? It was finally decided between us that we should, since with the region close about us we were of course well acquainted, and searching would be wasted in it, and it would be a day’s journey afoot along the base of the range, which trended to the southwest, before we could reach the place where began the succession of upward extending ravines in which we hoped to find more of the red metal. We hoped this, not from any definite belief, but because so many of these openings resembled the one in which Hammer had made the first discovery. After we had reached the first of these we could turn our horses loose, knowing that they would find their way back to the village.